From the Pastor's Desk - July 27, 2025

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

My first memory of prayer is with my mom. I am about three years old. She kneels at my bedside after I am tucked in. Together we pray the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be. After, we ask God to bless Mom and Dad, my brothers and sisters, the rich and the poor, the sick and those who are lonely. In all, it takes maybe three or four minutes. But in that short time, I learn how to talk to God and Mary. I learn how to pray with someone else and for others. I learn that God listens to us and blesses us.

Prayer is our lifeblood as Christians, but often we find ourselves like the disciples before Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel: “Lord teach us to pray.” There are so many spiritualities and methods of prayer in the Church: lectio divina, meditation, contemplation, vocal prayer, intercession, petition, adoration and thanksgiving. Sometimes it all becomes muddled for us, and we find ourselves flailing about spiritually. At those times, we need to remember to keep it simple, like a three year old praying with his mom. One simple and straightforward method of prayer is the following:

1.Acknowledge: As we enter into prayer, we should first become aware of what is going on inside of us. What are our thoughts, feelings and desires? It can be tempting to just start praying without first recollecting ourselves, but in that case our prayer is

scattered. Maybe I am carrying grief, anger, fear or worry; on the other hand, maybe

I am joyful, thankful or hopeful. This is the first step of prayer: to go inside and

become aware of what we are carrying.

2.Relate: After becoming recollected, I can tell God (or Mary or a favorite saint) about what I am aware of. I express to God what I have just acknowledged interiorly. Some

people get stuck at just thinking about things in their own head. But prayer itself

begins with relating to God what is going on within me. It begins with sharing my

thoughts, feelings and desires with him.

3.Receive: This is the most difficult part of prayer. After relating to God, I become silent and wait for his response. Prayer is a dialogue, a two-way street. His response comes

in silence, maybe in an interior word, feeling or call.

4.Respond: To close the time of prayer, I thank God or maybe make a resolution.

Maybe I am simply moved to make an act of faith, hope or love, or entrust myself to

his care.

United in prayer,

Fr. Dave